Great list Jeff! Although I can’t help but notice it doesn’t match your list from the year-end Game Mess stream with Mike. Regardless, this version contains my GOTY (Hardspace Shipbreaker) so happy to see some love for that game which seems to have been otherwise forgotten. Thanks for all the great work this year!
I love that Paradise Killer made it on here despite getting no coverage on the site (other than Jeff and Alex admitting during GOTY deliberations that they intended to play it but didn't get around to it). It's such a cool game. Also should have been a lock for Best Music if someone had tried it.
@undeadkink: Thx I wrote that email. They explained it well at least, I just got sick of hearing them complaining and calling it 'trash' with no further explanation. Always worked great for me.
Funny how the narrative on Outer Wilds seems to be that there's an initial hump to get over and then it's great, as I had the opposite experience. I was initially enchanted just flying around the different planets and discovering things. But by the time I was starting to piece together what I had to actually do I was so sick of flying to the same damn planet for the 50th time that I was ready to quit. I ended up following a walkthrough word for word to streamline things, but it was still frustrating. I can't tell you how many times I painstakingly set up some thing I had to see on Brittle Hollow only to take one slightly wrong step or jump, fall into the black hole and have to start over again.
I still think the story was incredible and it's an impressive feat of game design for sure, but the superlatives being thrown around about it are borderline ridiculous. I've said it before, but if you want an emergent story about exploring a vast, mysterious and frightening alien world with actual gameplay attached, go play Subnautica.
Sunny Day Real Estate was my first concert; to this day one of my favorite bands and Diary one of my favorite albums. Great to see it get some respect here, though would expect nothing less from GBE's version of William Goldsmith. Great list Alex!
I like Outer Wilds very much (not done yet) but I feel like everything positive that people are saying about it was done better by Subnautica. Vast and scary expanse to discover, true sense of nonlinear exploration, and a surprisingly powerful story that you uncover at your own pace. Having played both this year, OW couldn't help but pale in comparison, but it's definitely novel and ambitious so happy to see it getting respect.
Also feels like maybe Ben and Jan will be the only ones pulling for Fire Emblem which is a bummer, that's #1 for me this year by a mile.
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